


I'd be happy as hell if you stayed for tea

by pretttysounds



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: M/M, Sad with a Happy Ending, a bit sad maybe, can you tell i'm british i'm writing a fic about tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2016-10-02
Packaged: 2018-08-13 11:32:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7975318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pretttysounds/pseuds/pretttysounds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tyler just really wants to collect his piano from his ex-boyfriend's place. Josh wonders if he might like to stay for tea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'd be happy as hell if you stayed for tea

**Author's Note:**

> title from bon iver's 33 "GOD"  
> and fuck me his new album is SO beautiful

Tyler missed his old piano.

He'd gotten a new one since, of course. But there was something about the one he'd bought as a broke 17-year-old that was special to him; after all, he'd put so much into that piano with everything to lose, his entire future resting on its yellowing keys, and it could have let them fall to the ground. But it hadn't. Instead, it had got him halfway around the world with a good amount of cash in his bank account and an even more precious amount of songs that had made him into who he was today. And that, that was why he missed his first piano.

He'd wanted to go back and get it so many times. The only problem was, the last time he'd seen it had been in the spare room of the house he'd shared with his ex-boyfriend: the house he'd walked out of three years ago after one too many petty rows and vowed never to come back to. Josh had probably chucked it out, to be honest. It was useless, now, with no one to play it.

Now, he wondered if he was only telling himself that to try and talk himself out of going back. He wouldn't admit it, but  _maybe_  it was true.He glanced in the direction of Josh's estate, and his fingers drummed on the steering wheel of the truck. Then they guiltily steered it in the opposite direction.

It was autumn. Tyler liked that season, but he knew it was getting closer to winter, the cold, colourless months, and that was what he didn't like. He especially didn't like being alone in winter.

_"It's gonna be lonely this winter, without you to hold. Lonely this winter, lonely and cold. It'll be cold, so cold, without you to hold, this winter."_

The truck turned itself involuntarily back into Josh's neighbourhood, and Tyler's dumb Christmas singing died out. The trees in shades of burnt orange and sunshine yellow shone out at him against the pale slats of the house fronts. He blinked, and tried not to remember how it looked covered in snow when he drove out of it last.

The house itself soon loomed in front of him. He began to think that this was a horribly bad idea, but his foot refused to listen to the nagging feeling in his gut and continued to press down on the gas. Tyler pretended it bothered him, but his stomach _was_ getting the good kind of butterflies at the thought of seeing his piano there. He wondered if it had been played at all in the past three years, or if it had been sat in the spare room lonely and waiting for Tyler to come back. It was _his_ piano, after all. Even though he'd left it, he always knew at the back of his mind he'd come back to it. He loved it too much.

The truck rumbled onto the drive, and Tyler cut the engine quickly. As if to stop the piano from hearing that he'd arrived. In case it changed its mind, and didn't want him back. Tyler tried to ignore the sound of his heartbeat pounding in his ears, and took a deep breath. Then, despite his protests, his feet were marching him up the path to the front door and his finger was pressing down on the bell until the end around his nail turned white. He pulled it away, and drew in a breath.

There was a pause in which Tyler was convinced that Josh must have been out or maybe even moved house but then there was a  _click_ and the door swung slowly open, and a man was stood there with hair as red as the maple leaves and a face that hadn't changed a bit since Tyler had last seen it. He raised an eyebrow, a question forming on his lips, and Tyler cut him off.

"I'vecometocollectmypiano."

The man's mouth closed slowly, and the beginnings of a smile pulled at his lips. "I'm sorry?"

Tyler flushed a shade of pink, not disimilar to the one that the sky was turning in the late afternoon sunset. "I've come to collect my piano. That I left here. Um, three years ago."

A tut. "You're lucky I've still got it. I thought about throwing it away a lot of times, but I couldn't quite bring myself to. It was a good piano. It, uh, had a good run." he finished lamely.

Tyler shrugged. "You say that like it's finished with. It's still got some life in it, that piano." He found his tone getting a defensive edge to it, and Josh held his hands up as if to say  _okay, calm down. I was just saying._

"Well, it might have some tuning issues."

"Obviously. It hasn't been used in years."

Josh shut the front door behind him, and the two trudged upstairs. "It's still in the spare room." He said, turning slightly over his shoulder to look at Tyler down the stairs. "Everything else has come and gone, but that's still there. No one else has played it since, not as well as you, anyway."

"Takes a bit of getting used to. I know how to play it well."

"You always did."

The door to the spare room creaked open, and the familiar smell that you always associate with certain people's houses filled Tyler's nostrils. He knew that this smell meant Josh and his piano, and he let the nostalgia wash over him.

"Go on." Josh gave him a small nudge into the room, and he tumbled into the memories of so many years, so many years ago.

"It's a bit dusty." he remarked.

"We can clean it up."

"Then do you think it'll work okay?"

"It'll be as good as new."

" _I_ didn't even get it new. It was second hand."

"Well, that never stopped you from playing beautifully before."

Tyler managed a smile. "I hoped so."

His body moved itself to sit at the piano automatically, his fingers gliding across the keys as creaky notes began to fill up the small corner room they were standing in. He laughed self-consciously, and let his hands fall awkwardly to his sides. "You're right, it is a little worse for wear."

"That's not its fault." Josh moved slowly to the piano and motioned for Tyler to move out of the way. He pulled the flannel of his checked shirt over his wrist and swept it lightly across the keys, sending a cloud of dust spinning into the air. Tyler sneezed loudly, and Josh bit back a grin. "Sorry. Bless you."

"Thanks. It's alright."

Josh lifted the lid of the piano and tinkered around with some stuff inside, pressing a couple of keys every now and then experimentally. Then he slammed it shut, and Tyler jumped.

"Try that."

He scooted back into the seat. "For a drummer, you sure know your way around a piano, huh?"

Josh kicked at a loose floorboard with the toe of his sneaker. "Well, I spent four years living with a pianist. I got to know these things." He chuckled nervously. "I expect you know a bit more about drumming than you did before you met me, too."

"Yeah." They fell silent, the sudden memories filling the room and seeping into their heads through nostrils and eyes, reforming themselves in the shape of tears. Tyler coughed, breaking it. "What shall I play?"

"I don't know. Um, something you wrote. Trees."

He shrugged slightly. "Uh, okay." He hadn't played that one in a while, but it came back to him as if it had always been stored in the easily accessible part of his brain, and his lips were mouthing the shapes of the lyrics as he played. The music sounded beautiful, and soaked up the traces of sadness hanging low in the air.

The sound of Josh clapping emerged from the last few notes. "Wow. That song sounds just as good as the day you first played it to me." He felt Tyler's eyes on him, and dropped his hands and his gaze. "I mean, I told you we could fix it up so it sounded as good as it used to."

"Well, you were right, I guess. Thanks, man."

"No problem, dude." They shared a smile, and it was the first time they'd held each other's gaze for longer than 3 seconds all day. A faint pink tinge grew in both men's cheeks, and Josh reached up to scratch the back of his neck. "So, uh, was that all you stopped by for?"

"Pretty much, yeah." Tyler looked up at him hopefully. "Unless you had anything else of mine I forgot to take, or anything like that."

"No, no, not that." Josh said quickly. "I just, um, well I was just wondering if you wanted to have a cup of tea or anything before you leave." He met the other man's gaze. "I haven't seen you in a while, you know?"

"Three years." Tyler supplied.

Josh shifted awkwardly. "Yeah."

They went downstairs in silence, the weight leaving their shoulders as they stepped out of the stuffy room. Tyler found it easier to talk to Josh in the warmth of the kitchen they used to make pancakes in together in their underwear.

"How have you been?" Was the first thing he could think to say as he took a seat at the table and Josh busied himself with making tea.

"Uh, good, I guess." Josh answered. "After you... since we last saw each other I got a new job as a drum tech for a local band...not the best job in the world, but it pays the bills, I guess. Uh, I still drum in my spare time. I'm doing a course in business management so I can maybe do something better soon." He trailed off, running a hand through his bright curls. "Do you want ordinary breakfast tea, or fruit tea, or mint tea, or..." His hand stopped at the green and blue box. "Wait, peppermint, right?"

Tyler flushed lightly, out of pleasure that the other man remembered his preference of tea. He nodded, smiling a small smile. "Yes. Thank you."

"So what about you?" Josh set down their mugs and slid into a seat opposite Tyler. Tyler shrugged.

"Uh, went on touring for a bit. It was fun, but I don't like being a solo act so much. It gets lonely, and you don't have time for other people on tour." His words fizzled out limply, aware of how pathetic they sounded. "Sorry."

"It's okay, man." 

Tyler's spoon cluttered against the side of his mug, and he allowed a grin to take over his mouth. "Remember all those games of rock-paper-scissors we used to have to try and get out of doing the washing up?"

Josh smiled from his eyes. "Of course I do. All the times I'd win, but you'd demand a rematch and say I'd cheated?"

"I don't think it went  _exactly_ like that."

"I do." They laughed quietly, and silence descended once again, but a comfortable one his time.

Tyler drained his cup of tea, and watched the pale green dregs swirling in the bottom of the cup. "Thanks for the tea, Josh."

"You're welcome." 

He stood up to set his mug down by the sink, and hesitated. "Do you- do you think I could maybe _not_ take the piano today? And come get it another time, like, next week or something?"

Josh nodded. "Uh, sure. Yeah. That'd be cool. I mean, cool as in fine. That would be fine."

A smile tugged at Tyler's mouth, but he didn't let it show.

"Maybe we could have some more tea, too?"

"Yeah!"

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

They stared awkwardly at their shoes.

"I should be going, then." Tyler offered.

"Okay, sure."

"Josh?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for fixing my piano for me. And for, you know, not throwing it out. Waiting for me."

"I knew you'd want it some day." Josh smiled. "I'll see you soon, Tyler."

"Yeah, you too." Tyler looked at him warmly. "See you, Josh."

"See you, Ty."

He stumbled out of Josh's house, a renewed sense of hope in his heart and a small smile on his face. "I'll collect the piano soon."

"Okay, Tyler. Bye now."

"Bye."

 

Tyler never collected his piano. It stood in the corner of Josh's spare room until he moved eight years later, but it didn't get dusty anymore, and the notes never went stale again. And now, there were two pairs of hands to tune it whenever it needed it. Tyler wasn't as lonely for winter as he'd anticipated.

And Josh continued to make him peppermint tea every day, even when Tyler felt comfortable enough again to make his own without having to ask.

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: i know nothing about pianos but i know how to write hideously obvious extended metaphors :)  
> i'm not sure about the ending but overall i really enjoyed writing this, hope you enjoyed reading <3


End file.
